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Sunday, 17 May 2009

Sharp Deal

Adorama is having a nice sale this week on Nils Kokemohr's famous Nik Sharpener Pro 3.0 (normally $199), the granddaddy of sharpening plugins. The boxed version works with Photoshop and Aperture, and ownership entitles you to a free Lightroom-compatible update. Nik Sharpener Pro is especially useful for digital printmakers, as it provides output-device-specific soft proofing. Another nifty feature is that you can specify a color range to be sharpened, leaving other colors alone. (I'm a big fan of selective sharpening, as you might imagine if you're aware of my involvement with the whole "bokeh" thing....)

It's probably worth getting the boxed version as the downloads from the Nik site are reputed to be on the slow side.

Featured Comment by William: "Oooh! I was just ranting elsewhere on the internet about how sharpening should either be a) final stage output specific or b) selective on signal features. My current hatred for the indiscriminate post-demosaic omni-directional difference kernel knows no bounds."

Well,its not available for us Capture NX2 Users, which is a little surprising since they wrote most of that product.....
But maybe we don't need it as much as you "photoshop" layer geeks:-)
I like Versace's differentiation that NX is an "image" editor while photoshop is a "pixel" editor.
have fun with your plug-ins,
dale

Ooops, actually I think that the Lightroom 2.0 algorithms are based upon a different product (PhotoKit Sharpener) but I'm still not quite convinced that Lightroom 2.0 users actually would require this.

The output sharpening in LR2 is fully based on the work started by Bruce Fraser and continued by Jeff Schewe following Bruce's untimely death. It's my understanding that Jeff worked very closely with Adobe engineers to bring the level of sharpening in LR2 much closer to what can be achieved with Pixel Genuis's Photokit Sharpener product.

nik Sharpener, on the other hand, offers much more control over the sharpening done. If you need/want that kind of control, then the nik product (and a couple of others) will provide it in spades! If you don't need it, then...well...you don't need it; use LR2 output sharpening.

I agree with what the prior posters have said about Bruce Fraser. It has been almost three years since I read his 2006 book on sharpening. In the words Jason Odell, Capture NX2 how to do it author, it "can hurt your head." What comes out though, is a convincing argument that three sharpening steps are necessary for consideration in any digital capture, be it camera, scanner, or what have you. For most of us, the initial stage is to eliminate the blurring caused by the antialiasing filter consequences. Second, creative sharpening for specific portions of the image, eyes for instance, or blurring noise in a sky. Then, since output to a digital output device is essentially another digital capture by that other device, output sharpening specific to that device is needed. It is all so much, that I ran screaming to purchase Photokit Sharpener, which in turn was itself enough reason -- all by itself to keep Photoshop CS3 around. I mention Odell's comment for the benefit of the NX2 poster above who might think that these sharpening concepts are not needed relevant to Capture NX2. Lightroom 2 for that matter. I differ. Odell has suggestions himself for both capture and output sharpening in his ebook on NX2. The U-point tecnology ability of NX2 makes local sharping, for step two purposes, quite precise in NX2, as with most other editing possibilities in the program applied locally. Jeff Schewe has recently republished Fraser's Sharpening book, with an upcoming version that deals with both Photoshop and Lightroom. Schewe mentioned, in one of his sessions with Michael Reichmann, that Photokit Sharpener was now embedded in Lightroom 2. Here is the link to preorder the new edition.

Well Jacek,
I not sure that I was "comparing" one with the other, but I will accept that I was confusing one with the other if it makes you feel better:-) But I use NX-2 for both.
And Dave One of the great tools in NX, even more so in NX2 IS selective sharpening and I do use the three step approach. with initial, selective and sharpen for output. I haven't read Jason's new book, I got his first and while it definitely got me started with NX I was not fond of his writing style and found Versace's initial DVD set a lightbulb experience for post processing. (I didn't see the need for the NX2 version.) Versace is heavy handed for my taste, but his ability to convey technique clicked with me. I have seen many excellent reviews or Dr. O'dell's book.